Aberdeen are poised to add their first signing of the January transfer window with the capture of Jeppe Okkels.
The Danish winger is in Aberdeen already and is set to sign for the club on a loan deal for the rest of the season but that is expected to include an option to buy from Preston North End.
Jimmy Thelin knows the player well having signed him for Elfsborg before the 24-year-old headed for Utrecht of the Eredivisie in the January of 2024. Preston then took him to England just half a season later.
Thelin admitted he needed reinorcements this month amid a spate of injuries and his recruitment team were pressing on with plans.
That has been made even worse with Gavin Molloy and Ester Sokler joining the treatment room with lengthy injuries.
A number of positions require strengthening at Pittodrie and it’s winger that has been addressed first in the shape of Okkels.
His time in Lancashire hasn’t quite gone according to plan so Not the Old Firm has spoken to Olly Dawes, Managing Editor of Deepdale Digest, to get the lowdown on his spell there.
Q&A on Aberdeen transfer target Okkels
Okkels signed for Preston from Utrecht last summer – was it viewed as a good signing and what were the expectations for him?
We had just lost Liam Millar and missed out on signing Conrad Wallem from Slavia Prague, with Okkels viewed as the third-choice target on our left flank.
The expectation was that Okkels would come in and replace Millar following his impressive loan spell, but that was a rather lofty goal.
Fans were a little confused; Okkels had never really played as a wing back, played just a handful of games for Utrecht and yet PNE handed the Dutch side considerable profit.
That immediately left fans questioning the Okkels deal – especially as he arrived during a change in the dugout.
He has barely featured since – is there any context around that?
The deal to sign Okkels was teed up on the first day of the Championship season, but manager Ryan Lowe decided to quit on the Monday.
PNE decided to go through with the Okkels deal and announced his arrival just 24 hours after Lowe’s departure.
Paul Heckingbottom was appointed a week later and simply doesn’t appear to have rated Okkels all that highly.
Okkels certainly hasn’t been a fit as a wing back under Heckingbottom but opportunities off the bench have been hard to come by.
Heckingbottom told the Lancashire Evening Post that Okkels was working hard but suited playing in a counter-attacking team – something he wasn’t really looking to bring to Deepdale.
That means Okkels has quickly become a misfit at North End and a move many fans questioned at the time has proven to be a misstep.
Does the whole situation perhaps reflect more on the club and poor planning than on the player?
That is certainly the view across most of the PNE fanbase with little blame currently being laid at Okkels’ feet.
The Dane would have expected a key role after joining North End but signing him for such a huge fee – around £1.7million – without having a manager in place was just crazy.
Peter Ridsdale is copping plenty of flak for this deal, especially as so many other areas of the PNE squad need attention but funds were committed to the ill-fated Okkels move.
Okkels has been given a pretty raw deal here and most supporters are wishing him the best at Aberdeen.
How has he looked in the short time he has had on the pitch? What do fans think of him?
This is truly a difficult question to answer because we just haven’t seen enough of him. Since signing in August, Okkels has started just one league game – and he was substituted at half time.
Okkels’ 10 first-team outings have seen him record just 306 minutes of action, so an average of just about half an hour per appearance.
Okkels did look sharp in an EFL Cup win over Harrogate Town and almost scored with one moment of quality against Arsenal in October.
That’s pretty much all we have seen though with Okkels predominantly an unused substitute under Heckingbottom.
Fans generally have sympathy for Okkels and his situation and actually believe that he can thrive if actually given a chance in his real position – on the left of a front three.
Okkels likes to cut inside onto his right foot and the footage of his displays in Sweden show that he likes to come in close to goal and find the net – that is sadly all PNE fans have to go off.
From what you’ve seen of Okkels, could he be a good signing for Aberdeen?
The boost for Aberdeen is that Jimmy Thelin already knows Okkels very well from their time together at Elfsborg.
Of the 261 appearances Okkels has made in his career, 118 have come under Thelin whilst bagging 29 goals and 16 assists.
If anybody can get the best out of Okkels, it’s surely Thelin; he helped the Dane hit top form at Elfsborg, something we haven’t even come close to seeing at Deepdale.
Okkels hasn’t exactly been terrible in his first-team outings at PNE, it’s just there haven’t been many of them and if Thelin can help Okkels regain some confidence, he could prove to be a real difference maker.